Method of forming tubes of felted fibrous material



W. R. SEIGLE. METHOD OF FORMING TUBES 0F FELTED FIBROUS MATERIAL.

APPLICATlON FILED JUNE 28: I920- Patented Dec. 6, 1921,

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WILLIAM R. SEIGLE, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

METHOD OF FORMING-TUBES OF FELTED FIBRO'US MATERIAL.

Application filed June 28,

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, WILLIAM R. SEIGLE, a citizen of the United States of America, and resident of New York, in the county of New York and State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Methods of Forming Tubes of Felted Fibrous Material, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to the manufacture of wound paper or pulp tubes and has for its particular objects the construction of dense, thick walled tubes of larger diameter than have heretofore been obtainable, and further, the construction of tubes of the aforesaid character from asbestos fiber or pulp.

This invention consists of a method of manipulating a web of fibrous material, felted with water, by which the water contained inthe web and associated with the fibers is so controlled and actuated as to be instrumental in incorporating successively superposed layers of the web with each other into a substantially homogeneous single felted body, which exhibits none of the heterogeneity of discernibly laminated built-up fibrous sheets, and in the product of said method.

This method requires apparatus wherewith to carry it out; such apparatus is exemplified in a machine, herein described, which is also of my invention and by means of which I have been enabled to construct asbestos and other fiber tubes of high and uniform density, because of those characteristics adapted when out into suitable segments to serve as linings for brake-bands, especially when prepared for service by impregnation with a cementitious, fiber reinforcing filler, such as a hardened oil. Such special products of the method and machine herein to be- .described form the subject matter of other applications for patent filed by me concurrently herewith, and serially numbered 392,- 378, and 392,374.- The machine herein described also forms the subject matter ofan application for patent, filed by me concurrently herewith, Serial No. 392,371.

In my United States Letter Patent numbered 1,037,670, dated September 3, 1912, there is described a pulp tube machine adapted to the construction of pulp tubes of high density and inherent strength, and the subject matter of the present specification descriptively includes functionally related fac- Spccification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 6, 1921.

1920. Serial No. 392,372.

tors substantially the same as those which characterized the invention set forth in the said patent.

Since one ultimate object of this present invention is the production of a material eminently suitable to serve as brake-band linings, homogeneity of the fibrous felted structure of the pulp tube or cylinder is a prime requisite. The desired homogeneity is negatively characterized by practically complete absence of any stratifications or laminations in the wall of the pulp tube, and adapts the tubular structure to the reception and inclusion in its body, of impregnants which, by their binding and cementitious effect on the fibers which are comprised in the tube-structure, transform it into a friction sustaining material of solid consistency throughout. In the drawings hereto annexed, which illustrate a machine by which one may perform the process of my invention- Figure 1 is a diagrammatic elevation-view of a pulp-tube machine; and

Fig. 2 isa broken longitudinal section of the suction roll on which the pulp tube is wound.

The mechanical details of machines of the general character indicated are too well known to require full illustration or explanation.

In Fig. 1, A indicates the pulp-tank, B the cylinder mold, C the felt, which is preferably thin, as and for the reasons described in my aforesaid Patent No. 1,037,670; D a thickly felted couch roll, which may be mounted on a pivoted frame, as D; E a segmental roll, with the well-known suction commutator (not indicated) by means of which suction is maintained between selected segment-partitions such as F, and relaxed which suction i thus maintained; this area terminates near to, but short-of the line of tangency between the felt C and the mandrel roll, presently to be described; H, J, K, L and M are guide rolls for the felt C; and I, I are whip-rolls.

N represents the mandrel roll, on which the pulp tube is Wound. This is a continuous suction roll, and is connected to the branch P of the suction pipe 0; this branch P may be corrugated as at O, or otherwise provided with means to permit the mandrel roll N to bear heavily on the felt C, and to mandrel roll. The branch Q from the suc; tion pipe 0 communlcates with the interior of. the segmental suction roll E. A c0m-- acting roll R, mounted on a pivoted frame bears on the top of the mandrel roll N, or upon the pulp tube in the course of its construction. An adjustable weight T may be provided, wherewith to adjust the pressure with which the roll It bears upon roll N, and conse%1ently causes roll N to bear uponthe felt supported by the segmental roll E.

The construction of the mandrel roll N is more fully illustrated in Fig. 2. It comprises an inner cylinder N, perforated at and an outer jacket N of finely and closely perforated metal, or. of wire cloth.

The inner cylinder N forms a substantially air-tight joint at N with the head plates P (of which one is shown) so that it may rotate in relation to the head plates while suction is maintained within it. The outer jacket N is provided with end sleeves, as N", which make a substantially air-tight fit, as

at N, with the imperforate portions of the inner cylinder N.

The outer jacket N provides the perforated or reticulated surface on which the pulp tube is wound. This jacket is removable from the inner cylinder N, so that when a pulp tube has been built up on the jacket, the jacket with the tube on it may be removed, and replaced by a similar jacket on which another tube is built.

The operation of the machine comprising the foregoing factors is as follows:

By means of the heavily felted couch roll D, a film or web of interlaced or felted fibers is taken off thecylinder mold B on to the felt C and carried thereon to the segmental suction roll E. The suction maintained .on this roll through the region indicated at G extracts a considerable portion of the water contained in the fibrous web, but is relaxed at a point, or rather a line along the cylindrical surface of the roll which is far enough from the line of tangency of the mandrel roll M to permit the water remaining in the fibrous web to regain its outer surface andmoisten it, so that it unites intimately with layers previously wound upon the mandrel roll. This intimacy of incorporation of successive layers of fibrous web with each other is further insured by the continuous suction maintained in the mandrel roll, w ich draws the fresh, wet and relatively mobile fibers into firm union with previously deposited fibrous layers, and at the same time by drawing water, carried to the outer layer by the fibrous web coming from the felt C, through the whole accumulated mass of fiber, felting the fibers of successively ap-, plied layers together, so that upon complethe pulp tube on the mandrel roll is in single homogeneous felted structure, free from the heterogeneity or lack .of unity which characterizes structures formed of discernible or separable laminae.

sired thickness of wall, the machine is stopped, the jacket N? with the pulp tube.

unit removed from the perforated cylinder N, and a similar jacket put on the cylinder, which is then remounted in the head plates P. The formation of another pulptube is then begun.

After the pulp tubes have been cured by drying to any desired extent, they can be slit longitudinally and removed. fromthe jacket N It is not intended that these pulp tubes shall be taken from the jackets while moist and plastic, and be flattened as is the practice in making mill-board and the like. designed to produce pulp tubes of such thickness in relation to-diameter that such flattening would be quite impracticable. As to the product itself, a principal object of this invention is to construct dense, thick-. walled pulp tubes which shall be allowed to dry andbecome set in cylindrical form, so that segments cut from such tubes shall be of suitable shape and proportions to be attached to brake shoes and the like, and serve thereon as linings.

In general, pulp tubes comparable in respect to density and thickness of wall to those. manufactured on machines of the character described in my said Patent No. 1,037,670, but of much larger diameter than has been found practicable to attempt on suchmachines, canbe produced by means of the invention herein described.

The product of the above described method may be characterized as one of layer-accumulation, as distinguished from bodies made by compressing a mass of fibrous material, with orwithout a filler or cementitious ingredient, en bloc, in a mold.

material have been made, and used for brake shoes and the like, by the block-molding method, but that method is not adapted The machine herein described is Curved segmental bodies comprising fibrous to the construction of segments which sub tend large arcs; whereas the layer accumulation or layer-accretion method is adapted to the construction of segments which subtend arcs up to the complete 'circumferance of a circle.

I claim:

1. The method of forming tubes of fibrous material, which consists in forming a Web of said fibrous material with Water, extracting part of the water-content from said Web, superposing successive layers of said web on each other, and forcing part of the Water remaining in said layers from the latest. superposed layer thereof to and through the other layers.

2. Tl1e method of forming tubes of felted fibrous material, which consists in forming a web of said fibrous material With water,

extracting part of the Water-content from said web, superposing successive layers of said Web on each other under pressure, and forcing part of the water remaining in said layers from the latest superposed layer thereof to and through the other layers.

3. The method of forming tubes of felted fibrous material, which consists in forming a web of said fibrous material with Water,

extracting part of the water-content from said Web, superposing successive layers of said web on each other, and forcing by suction part of the water remaining in said layers from the latest superposed layer thereof to and through the other layers.

4. The method of forming tubes of felted fibrous material, which consists in forming a web of said fibrous material with Water, extracting part ofthe water-content from said Web, superposing successive layers of said Web on each other under pressure and forcing by suction part of the Water remaining in said layers from the latest superposed layer thereof to and through the other layers.

Signed by me at New York, N. Y., this 25th day of June, 1920.

' WILLIAM R. SEIGLE. 

